The Day My Fiance Broke His Back

Seth is a carpenter and a big, tough burly man. A former
drill sergeant from the army, he weighs in at 220 lbs, mostly
muscle. He'd been building houses with a lightning-fast crew on
the South Side: Seasoned experts who can frame & sheath houses
shockingly fast.

It was a quiet Wednesday morning. I was showing my oldest
son how to cook and trying to decide whether I should head for
the Beach when I received a tiny text message from him:
"Just fell off a roof". Hmm. I thought, not good. His
brother fell off a roof last winter, bounced up like a
jack-rabbit and went back to work. So it might just be an
informative message like when he got a huge splinter last week. I
texted back "Are you okay?" No answer. I figured his
ultra-tough crewmates were teasing him at this point and
regaling him with stories of worse injuries they'd suffered
- as usual.

When an E.R. Nurse called from the hospital, she could
only tell me that he was in "a lot of pain". She
didn't mention paralysis, so I took that as a sign that maybe
he'd just broken a leg or something. They had taken him to a
hospital on the far side of the Island, so I drove on down there
as quick as I could, stopping only to pick up some arnica &
Traumeel. Well, actually, the cops stopped me too - for
speeding or something - at which point I completely broke
down & told them that they had to let me go because my man was
in the Hospital and I had the medicines that he needed. Totally
unsympathetic, the first cop coldly asked "Well, isn't he
under a Doctor's care?" I tried to explain that doctors
don't know anything about Homeopathy or these kinds of meds &
finally they let me go.

Upon arrival, I went straight to my fiancÚ and gave him 4
tabs of Arnica 30x (which incited the ire of his nurse, who
eventually settled down). That's when they told us about his
broken back. Much to my relief and his great luck, he was not
paralyzed and not going to need surgery. However, he had some
wicked contusions, especially from where he had landed on his
hammer, and was in excruciating pain (despite being fairly
drugged up). I immediately started massaging Traumeel into his
back and chest. He had slipped on the apex of the plywood roof
sheathing as it started raining, slid down its entire length and
fallen 12 feet onto hard-packed dirt.

Between his fragmented memories, the MRI, and the bruises,
we pieced together that he'd curled up as he fell, protecting
his head with his arms, and probably landed on his back, a
little on the right. The break was in T-12, a pretty crucial
vertebra. The great blessing is that it is on the anterior side
of the anterior portion of the vertebra, which means that the
spinal cord was not affected, nor at risk.

In addition to the break, when I looked at the MRI, two
other things immediately incited my serious concern:

There was a tremendous amount of compression in the
disk-spaces between the vertebrae surrounding the fracture,
particularly T-6 through L-1. The corners of the vertebrae were
practically touching eachother " which seems consistent
with the compression potential of a 220 lb guy loaded with 30
lbs of gear falling at least 12 feet off a roof.

The sacrum was badly misaligned relative to L-5 (and a
deep blue bruise at that joint was visible through the skin)

So in addition to the actual fracture, and significant
spinal deformation visible from the MRI, substantial joint
damage seemed likely, as well as the normal torn & sprained
muscles and ligaments likely to accompany such a traumatic
injury.

Hoo boy.

Seth elected to check out of the hospital as soon as
possible and stopped taking his pain meds. He said he'd rather
let his pain sensibly inform him of his limits. The only
position he could walk in (barely) was on crutches because he
could induce a little traction by suspending his weight from
them. Getting up and lying down were major productions involving
much pain, caution, and heavy breathing.

Before we left the hospital, I asked the radiologist
- a friend - if there were any contra-indications regarding
massage. He said none in this case. I also asked if traction
would be good for Seth, to which he replied "Yes,
probably".

So safe at home, I had a plan for my man:

For the broken vertebra, Comfrey
("knit-bone") tea - 1 quart twice a day, to
speed the bones knitting back together.

For general pain, bruising, and swelling: Arnica 4x a
day

For soft tissue damage: Traumeel massages, 4x/day

For Joint compression: An inversion table, ASAP.

Thanks to the arnica & Traumeel, by the next day every
bruise was gone except for the one where he'd landed on his
tool belt. Even that was reduced to a red circle only an inch or
two in diameter. He had to sleep on a board (hospital
recommendation) or in a zero-gravity chair which ultimately
proved to be the more comfortable, long-term option. He kept
complaining of severe pain in his chest in addition to the pain
in his back: "Where?"..."Everywhere".

There was a convex exterior area from T-6 to L-1 that was
pretty much presenting as a solid, locked-up mass even when
standing. His lower belly was deformed, drooping over his shorts
by at least an inch. That night, as I was massaging Traumeel
into his chest, in a fit of inspiration, I took hold of his feet
and firmly tractioned his back with the intent of straightening
out and decompressing the vertebrae. His back popped liked a
string of Chinese fire crackers and he yelled "Stop!"
which I immediately did. That night he was in excruciating pain
and his core collapsed every time he tried to move.

I was legitimately concerned that I had made him worse,
but in the morning he was significantly improved. He could now
get up and sit down much more easily, with much less pain. He no
longer required crutches to walk (although he still found them
helpful). Also, the convexity of his thoracic spine was gone,
reverted to a more normal curvature consistent with the rest of
his back, and his belly arched normally above his shorts rather
than drooping below. His overall pain level was immensely
reduced and he spent the day hobbling around and sitting in his
gravity chair. He was very proud that he managed to fetch the
mail from the mailbox that day, for which I chided him, because
he is supposed to be on best rest at least for the first week.
Honestly, you cannot keep a good man down!

The acute pain in his back reduced, other pains started
requesting attention. He was concerned that he might have broken
his left foot. I quickly ascertained that he had not (since he
could wiggle and clench all his toes). Still I massaged the area
deeply, loosening the very-tight muscles before applying gentle
traction through the metatarsals and a series of gratifying
clicks and pops ensued, which he said made it feel better.

The other major issue he was complaining about was his
chest. He pointed out that it was shaped differently than it
used to be: there was a large rectangular protrusion a
little above his heart. Now, I am a deep-tissue specialist, and
this was an area of the body I had never experienced a
client having trouble with before. I had already been melting
through fascial trauma in the pecs from the start -
presenting as numerous tiny to small, put potently distinct
bumps and crystals within the very tight muscles - but this
was strange.

Everything between the Manubrium and the 2nd rib was in
spasm. Plus there was this weird, visible, rectangular bulge popping out in
the middle of his chest. I had to look it up on my trusty
"Pocket Body" app, which is the most useful tool I've
ever found for anatomy research.

There is was: the sternal angle was off, by a lot.
Interestingly, when I massaged the area distally, it felt good
to him, whereas when I massaged it proximally, severe pain would
ensue. Also, upon closer inspection, the body of the sternum was
angling into his body (towards his heart) as it approached the
sternal angle and the large rectangular bump clearly visible in
his chest appeared to be the butt end of the manubrium. It
became apparent that the body of the sternum was subluxed to the
manubrium at the sternal angle. Yikes!

Quickly, a possible solution presented itself. I gently
tractioned the sternum and manubrium away from each other. No
luck. I wanted to pull the sternum up out of his body while
tractioning the manubrium towards his head to realign them, but
how could I possibly get a grip on the body of the sternum? Ah,
yes: the breath. Okay, client-fiancÚ: "Breath into this
area right here", I tapped the body of his sternum just
distal to the sternal angle. It took a few tries for him to
figure out how to breathe into just that area of his chest, but
once he did, the magic happened " a subtle slide & presto!
Realignment.

Three weeks of daily massage ensued. During the second
week his Worker's Comp claim was approved, whereupon the back
specialist who visits our island once every two weeks agreed to
see him. So three weeks to the day after his fall, he finally
got to see an actual back specialist who examined his MRI, and then said "Did they tell you you
broke three vertebrae?". T-10 was broken on the posterior
side, T-11 and T-12 on the anterior side. T-11 & T-12 had
slip-fractured and were now a bit wedge-shaped rather than the
chunky little cubic volumes normally found in a healthy
spine.

As soon as his Worker's Comp was approved, I also got him in to see
the best therapeutic specialist I know: a master
Rolfer named Ken Solin, who knows a lot about spinal injuries,
having personally recovered from a broken neck about 13 years
ago. A lot of Kenny's work focused on relieving the massive
angular compression through the ribs that had dislocated the
sternal angle. But in true rolfer style, he worked everything and Seth improved rapidly.

Within a year, Worker's Comp declared him 97% recovered
and officially discharged him. I truly believe that the manual
therapies and rapid application of arnica + traumeel played a
huge rule in his miraculous recovery. At this point he is back to
work as a carpenter and pain-free despite regularly working with very
heavy loads in a highly physical job. However, the loss of bone
mass on the anterior sides of T-11 & T-12 sometimes causes a convex
hump to develop in that area of his back if he goes too long without a
massage or doing yoga (which he has only started recently).
Since those vertebrae are within his rib cage, they are
difficult to access through massage, so breathwork and yoga will
probably be the most effective way he can keep the anterior
portion of his spine open, strong, and healthy despite the bone
deformations.